radeon EXA performance questions

[Ross Vandegrift]

On Tue, Jul 01, 2008 at 05:32:33PM +0200, Michel Dänzer wrote:
> On Tue, 2008-07-01 at 11:26 -0400, Ross Vandegrift wrote:
> > I converted my workstation at the office to use EXA instead of XAA
> > on a Radeon RV380.  Many operations are clearly faster, and everything
> > seems quite stable.  I'm not using any compositing manager, just E17
> > for normal 2D desktop work.  
> 
> Which E17 rendering backend is enabled, does switching between them make
> any difference?

I'm currently using Software, as it's the default.  I just tried switching to
XRender but performance seemed identical.

> > Here's the device options I've enabled, and it's helped performance
> > somewhat:
> >         Driver          "radeon"
> >         Option          "AccelMethod"           "EXA"
> >         Option          "AccelDFS"              "1"
> >         Option          "EnablePageFlip"        "1"
> >         Option          "ColorTiling"           "1"
> >         Option          "FBTexPercent"          "0"
> 
> Note that the Mesa r300 driver won't work correctly without any video
> RAM reserved for textures.

Yea - I saw that in the documentation.  Since I don't use Mesa (or any
GL at all) on this system, I figured I'd do that to give EXA as much
memory as possible for off-screen stuff.  Is that faulty reasoning?


> >         Option          "MigrationHeuristic"    "greedy"
> 
> Which version of the driver and xserver? With current versions this
> option shouldn't be necessary in general.

That was only a slightly educated guess :)
My Xorg.0.log reports Xserver 1.4.0.90, and radeon module 4.3.0.

If I get the time today, I'll try upgrading the Xorg in Debian
unstable.
-- 
Ross Vandegrift
ross at kallisti.us

"The good Christian should beware of mathematicians, and all those who
make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians
have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine
man in the bonds of Hell."
	--St. Augustine, De Genesi ad Litteram, Book II, xviii, 37